The invention relates to a method for determining load size and/or setting a water level in a washing machine. For a wash process of a washing machine, the water level in the tub is typically set based on the size of a fabric load and, sometimes, the fabric type of the fabric load. The size of the fabric load may be manually input by the user through a user interface or may be automatically determined by the washing machine. For manual input by the user, the user may oftentimes overestimate or underestimate the load size, thereby resulting in too much or too little water, respectively, for the wash process. Too much water is wasteful, and too little water may lead to an insufficient wash performance. Many methods are known for the washing machine to automatically determine the load size and/or fabric type, such as by employing an output of the motor that drives the drum within the tub and the agitator within the drum. However, some lower end washing machines have motors that do not provide output useful for determining load size or have other limitations that preclude or make undesirable known methods for automatically determining load size.